Nicole Scherzinger Popstar has been pretty busy over the last couple of years since her last album, 2011’s ‘Killer Love’. She’s been playing judge on The X Factor, shampooing her locks for Herbal Essences, snuffling yoghurts for Muller and will soon be appearing in Cats on the West End stage. Listening to ‘Big Fat Lie’, though, you do wish she’d have concentrated a little more on the music rather than getting her nose covered in Greek whipped liquid fluff.
Lead single and opening track Your Love could have marked the start of something decent. It’s certainly a little different for the
2014 charts, all percussive beats and electronic sparkles (even if it’s lacking
in the bass department). Sadly it
massively underperformed on release.
That it was followed by the incredibly dull On The Rocks is indicative of a music career stuck in a downward
spiral.
Scherzinger is so much better than this. She’s one of the sexiest women on the
planet. She can dance and perform
onstage better than most. And she’s got
a decent set of pipes. So why settle for
this album of trite?
Electric Blue,
featuring rapper T.I., is the only other track on ‘Big Fat Lie’ worth listening
to. Its syncopated beats and retro
synths, coupled with her breathless falsetto, make for one hell of a sexy track
that successfully borders both pop R&B and hip-hop.
The remains of the album, though, is generic pop R&B at
best, devoid of hooks. The monotonous Heartbreaker revolves around a single, repetitive
bassline; God of War is notable only
for its sweary chorus (“I’m so glad you’re gone / You’re so f*cking annoying”);
the title track is a typical “oh woe is me I’m rich and famous and heartbroken”
slow jam; and Run is a snore-inducing
piano-led ballad that doesn’t show off Scherzinger’s vocal as much as it
should.
For the most part, ‘Big Fat Lie’ meanders through a series
of tracks attempting to replicate the same futuristic R&B sound that
everyone else is doing so much better – the sparse Bang; the autotuned Just A
Girl. It’s about time Scherzinger
took control of her career and released an album of forward-thinking pop. She’s certainly capable of it.
Instead she’s released an album that’s essentially a bad
Cheryl F-V record. To say anything else
would be a big fat lie.
2/5
Listen: 'Big Fat Lie' is available now.
